May 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (May 21, 1776).

“Enquire of the Printer.”

John Dunlap’s printing office in Baltimore was a busy place.  The colophon for Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette informed readers that in addition to printing the newspaper there, it was the place to purchase subscriptions and submit advertisements.  In addition, they could have “all manner of Printing Work done with the utmost Expedition.”  Yet those were not the only services available at the printing office.  Even more information flowed in conversations with the printer than in the newspapers, broadsides, and handbills that came off the press.  Advertisements placed for a variety of purposes instructed interested parties to “Enquire of the Printer” for more details.

That included employment advertisements.  Consider those that appeared in the May 21, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette.  One prospective employee, “A PERSON regularly bred to the mercantile business,” hoped to gain a position “in the writing way.”  In other words, he sought work as a bookkeeper, advising “[a]ny merchant or trader having their books unposted, or wanting them put in proper order, or accounts drawn, may depend on their being speedily and well done at a reasonable rate.”  The advertiser did not reveal his identity but instead asked such merchants and traders to “Enquire of the Printer” for an introduction.  The headline “WANTED” started another advertisement, that one seeking a distiller who “mist be a single Man, honest, capable, and sober.”  His “chief employment will be to make Whiskey from rye, apples and peaches” in exchange for a “good salary and kind treatment” by his employer.  To learn more, prospective applicants had to “Enquire of the Printer.”  Another “WANTED” notice sought a “Person properly qualified to teach a SCHOOL.”  Candidates needed references.  Upon “being well recommended,” one would “meet with great encouragement by applying to the Printer.”  The advertisement did not specify whether the printer would make the call about what qualified as “being well recommended” before making an introduction to the prospective employer.

The printing office was not a brokerage, an intelligence office, or an employment agency, but it served some of those functions, especially when printers acted as intermediaries who supplied details that did not appear in advertisements and made introductions.  Early American printers trafficked in information via conversations in their bustling offices and correspondence directed there in addition to printing and distributing newspapers and other advertising media.

Slavery Advertisements Published May 21, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (May 21, 1776).

Slavery Advertisements Published May 20, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (May 20, 1776).

**********

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (May 20, 1776).

**********

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (May 20, 1776).

**********

Norwich Packet (May 20, 1776).

**********

Norwich Packet (May 20, 1776).

**********

Norwich Packet (May 20, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published May 20, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Courant (May 20, 1776).

May 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (May 18, 1776).

“To be SOLD … a considerable Number of other Articles too tedious to enumerate.”

In the spring of 1776, William Pitt advised the readers of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette that he stocked a variety of items “at his Store in WILLIAMSBURG.”  His advertisement had a familiar format, a short introduction followed by a dense paragraph of text with his name at the end and a final note that drew attention to items of particular interest.

In the introduction, Pitt declared that he sold “the following Articles, for ready Money only.”  Generous credit had been an important aspect of the consumer revolution, but in times of distress many retailers insisted that their customers had to pay at the time of purchase.  Pitt certainly was not alone in doing so after the war began with the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord.  The body of the advertisement consisted entirely of a catalog of Pitt’s merchandise, a means of demonstrating the array of choices he made available to consumers.  He stocked everything from fabrics and accessories to housewares and tools, including “BROADCLOTHS, … Muslins, Gauze, Cambrick, Lawn and Gauze Handkerchiefs and Aprons, black Minionet and Blond Lace, … Women’s Hats and Bonnets, Gloves, Ribands, Fans, Necklaces, … large Dressing Glasses, black Walnut Tea Chest, … Saws, Scythes, … a Variety of China Cups, Saucers, and Teapots, Guns and Gun Locks, … broad and narrow Axes, … Brass and Iron Skillets, … Sheep and Tailors Shears, Scissors, Razor Straps, Combs, Fish Hooks, Cork Screws, Shoemakers and Saddlers Tools, Saddles, [and] Bridles.”  The length of the list was an appeal to customers in and off itself.  Some of those items, especially the textiles, are not readily familiar to modern readers, but eighteenth-century consumers recognized them and could distinguish among them.  Just in case he had not convinced prospective customers of the variety that awaited at his store, Pitt proclaimed that he sold “a considerable Number of other Articles too tedious to enumerate.”  That was a common pitch throughout the colonies.  He concluded with a shorter entry.  Many advertisers used “N.B.” for nota bene (“take note”), but Pitt inserted a manicule for the same effect.  “I have also,” he noted, “a LARGE and ELEGANT ASSORTMENT of SWORDS.”  Gentlemen looking to outfit themselves for military service or simply to defend themselves, Pitt suggested, should visit his store.  Even with the final entry about swords, his advertisement looked much like those published before the war began.

May 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Providence Gazette (May 18, 1776).

“ONCE MORE!”

Levi Hall and John Foster wanted the headline for their advertisement in the May 18, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette to catch the attention of readers.  Every advertiser certainly wanted their notice to reach the public, but crafting a catchy headline was not a standard practice in the eighteenth century.  Some advertisements did not have headlines at all.  Others gave a generic summary of the purpose of the notice, such as “WANTED,” “FOUND,” and “TO BE SOLD.”  Some named items offered for sale, like “WRITING PAPER,” and others gave the name of the advertiser, including “NATHANIEL GREENE,” “CLARK and NIGHTGALE,” and “ELIHU ROBINSON, Hatter.”  John Sebring, the “saddler and Cap-Maker, from London,” once again deployed his mononym, “SEBRING,” as the headline for an advertisement.  Weel after week, similar headlines for paid notices appeared in the Providence Gazette.

That made “ONCE MORE!” stand out.  Its distinctiveness may have enticed readers to look more closely at the rest of the advertisement.  When they did, they learned that Hall and Metcalf called on those “indebted to the late Company of HALL and METCALF … to pay their respective Debts.”  Hall placed the notice as the “surviving Partner of said Company,” while Foster did so as the “Attorney to Desire Metcalf, Executrix to Nathaniel Metcalf, deceased.”  Tyey reported that a “Settlement of the Company’s Affairs [was] immediately demanded,” warning that “those who neglect this last friendly Notice, must expect to be sued, without Distinction.”  In other words, neither social status nor customer loyalty nor any other factor would prevent Hall and Foster from taking to court those who refused to settle accounts.  Hall and Metcalf’s widow had placed a similar advertisement nearly a year earlier on July 29, 1775, so it was not the first time that such a notice appeared in the Providence Gazette, but it would be the last, especially considering that an attorney rather Desire Metcalf signed the notice.  “ONCE MORE!” signaled some frustration, even though Hall and Foster asked readers to think of the advertisement as a “friendly Notice.”  The headline underscored that they were running out of patience.

In both advertisements, Hall, the “surviving Partner,” added a nota bene to inform the public that he “continues to sell the best dressed Leather of all kinds” and made “Leather Breeches, at the most reasonable Rates, and on very short Notice.”  Although the partnership had been dissolved upon the death of Metcalf, Hall continued the business “at the Sign of the Buck, opposite the Church,” hoping that years of experience serving the residents of Providence would help him gain and maintain his clientele.

Slavery Advertisements Published May 18, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Providence Gazette (May 18, 1776).

*********

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (May 18, 1776).

*********

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (May 18, 1776).

*********

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (May 18, 1776).

**********

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (May 18, 1776).

**********

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (May 18, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published May 18, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Essex Journal (May 18, 1776).

May 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 17, 1776).

“COMMON SENSE … to be sold at the CONSTITUTIONAL POST OFFICE.”

In an advertisement in the May 17, 1776, edition of the Virginia Gazette, Alexander Purdie, the printer, listed a trio of books and “WRITING PAPER, in small quantities, to be sold at the CONSTITUTIONAL POST OFFICE” in Williamsburg.  Those books included two military manuals, “Simes’s MILITARY GUIDE” and “Stevenson’s MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS,” as well as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, a popular political pamphlet that boldly advocated for declaring independence rather than seeking redress of grievances within the imperial system.  All three works, each of them related to the war, had been published in Philadelphia and transported to Williamsburg.  This was a rare instance of Common Sense being advertised along with other books rather than featured exclusively.

Common Sense appeared first in the advertisement, a fitting placement considering other content in that issue of the Virginia Gazette.  A report from the provincial convention informed readers of a resolution, approved unanimously on May 15, that “the delegates appointed to represent this colony in General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable body “TO DECLARE THE UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon, the crown or parliament of Great Britain.”  The following day, the Committee of Safety, members of the General Convention, and residents of Williamsburg gathered for a ceremony at which the resolution was “read aloud to the army,” followed by a series of toasts to “The American independent states,” “The Grand Congress of the United States, and their respective legislatures,” and “General Washington, and victory to the American arms.”  A “discharge of the artillery and small-arms, and the acclamations of all present” followed each toast.  In addition, the “UNION FLAG of the American states waved upon the Capitol during the whole of this ceremony.”  Those present embraced Paine’s arguments for independence that had seemed too radical to many only a few months earlier.

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 17, 1776)

That Purdie sold the pamphlet and the military manuals “at the CONSTITUTIONAL POST OFFICE” also resonated with readers.  They knew that the Second Continental Congress established the Constitutional Post Office as an alternative to the imperial post, appointing Patriots as postmasters.  In addition, Purdie introduced a new masthead for the May 17 edition of the Virginia Gazette.  The previous one featured an image depicting the arms of the monarch and the motto, “En Dat Virginia Quartam” or “Behold, Virginia gives the fourth.”  That referred to the colony as a dominion of the crown along with Great Britain (England and Scotland) and claims to Ireland and France.  The new masthead, however, did not include an image.  Instead, a border of decorative type enclosed, “THIRTEEN UNITED COLONIES” and “United, we stand—Divided, we fall,” a message that echoed the one represented by the severed snake that other printers previously incorporated into the mastheads of the Massachusetts Spy, the New-York Journal, and the Pennsylvania Journal.  As Purdie advertised Common Sense, several elements of his newspaper revealed his endorsement of arguments presented in the political pamphlet.

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 10, 1776).

Slavery Advertisements Published May 17, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 17, 1776).

**********

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 17, 1776).